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Saturday, April 4, 2009

Beech Bend Park

I am a nostalgia junkie. Lately, I've been remembering a favorite childhood family vacation spot. Apparently my parents stumbled onto this place called Beech Bend Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky as they were enroute to non-specific vacation location for two weeks in July (1966?). They stopped at this park to camp overnight and found that it was the perfect inclusive vacation destination for a camping family with three children. The entry fee to the park was 10 cents per person. In addition to a beautiful camping area with a river running though it, was a zoo (they had everything from racoons to zebras to chimpanzees), an amusement park, miniature golf, a roller rink, a dance hall, a racetrack, and a huge swimming pool. Naturally, my sister, brother and I (Christy wasn't born yet) were most attracted to the rides and swimming pool. The first time our family visited (for 2 weeks at once), mom said we spent most of the daytime in the pool as it was a very hot summer that year. At night, our parents would take us to the amusement park area and let us ride and ride and ride. The rides took one ticket at 10 cents each! Wednesdays was bracelet day. My parents liked to play skee ball and my sister and I loved going to the Fasination game which was in an enclosed building with air conditioning. For some reason we were intrigued with the woman who ran the game; she wore a lot of rouge on her cheeks. Some nights, we went to the racetrack to watch drag racing. Oh what fun we had and what wonderful memories. We visited the park several times over the years. Eventually, it fell into disrepair and most of the original buildings and rides were torn down. I recently began looking for Beech Bend items on Ebay. Below are a few of the items I purchased. The lady who sold the ride tickets is from Bowling Green. She wrote to me and told me that the park is being revitalized and now includes a waterpark. My mom and I stopped in several years ago on our way to Georgia. The park was in sad shape--very ghost town-like. I like holding onto the memories of the original Beech Bend. Thanks Mom and Dad for taking us on such wonderful and memorable family vacations.




3 comments:

sweetlittlelife said...

This is so neat!

Leasa said...

Wow, I love your Ebay items. This post made me cry. Very sweet. Those were good times.

Tresa said...

Yes, they were good times.